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by bryanlarsen 2955 days ago
> What makes you think that agreement was broken?

Rulings from the South Korean court system for one, and preliminary decisions in its court battle with Apple, for another.

1 comments

I agree that some aspects of Qualcomm's licensing practices are clearly in violation of that agreement and US regulator ignored it too long. But I find it a bit shady that the Korean regulator didn't ask/allow Qualcomm to explain/defend their practices, or even to respond to accusations made by companies like Apple. In US lawsuit where Apple and Qaulcomm sued and countersued each other, Apple is accused of lying and misleading regulators about their exclusivity deal, which resulted in Qualcomm holding back rebates. So I think we should wait and see what really happened there.

Further. Apple's claim that Qualcomm violated FRAND in respect to royalty basis and rates is somewhat dubious at best -- never been upheld legally -- and does not demonstrate Qualcomm's licensing malpractices. Apple challenged pretty much every wireless patent holders (eg, Nokia, Ericsson, Moto, Qualcomm, etc..) and refused to pay claiming that the entire industry's licensing practices were in violation of FRAND, but ended up losing or settling every lawsuit, including the one with Samsung a few years back where Obama had to intervene to prevent Apple's sales import ban.